Dallas Stars Blog

Jere Lehtinen officially announces retirement

Stars winger Jere Lehtinen today has officially announced his retirement from the NHL, according to the Stars.

Lehtinen, 37, played his entire career with the Stars, finishing with 875 games, 243 goals and 271 assists for 514 points in 14 seasons.

He won the Selke Trophy three times as best defensive forward in the NHL, and finished his career at plus-176 for his career. He was a minus-player in only one season _ 2009-10, when he was minus-8.

He also played in 108 playoff games, scoring 27 goals and adding 22 points.
In a press release from the Stars, Lehtinen said:

“First of all, I wanted to thank Joe Nieuwendyk and the Stars organization for giving me some time to come to this decision. They respected the fact that I wanted to be 100 percent sure prior to making this announcement, and I appreciated that.”

“It’s a tough decision to come to due to the fact that you play hockey your entire life and then must decide to stop playing. However, I choose to focus on all the great times I had playing over the past 15 seasons, understanding that I am very fortunate to have played all those years with one organization. The memories I have playing in Dallas will never be forgotten and I will always be proud of the fact that I finished my career where I started it.”

“There are so many people that have positively influenced my career, including the entire Dallas Stars organization, the coaches, the players, the trainers, the fans and most importantly, my family. To all of those people I want to say thank you. Everybody that touched my career in some facet, whether small or large, had an impact on me and I will always remember that. Thank you.”

_ Won Selke Trophy (Best Defensive Forward) three times (’98, ’99, ’03) – One of only four players in NHL history to win three-or-more (also Bob Gainey, 4, Guy Carbonneau, 3, and Pavel Datsyuk, 3).
_ Was nominated for the Selke Trophy six times.
_ Led the Stars in goal scoring in three seasons:
’06-07: 26 goals
’05-06: 33 goals
’02-03: 31 Goals
_ Was the first Finnish player in history to win both a Stanley Cup and a gold medal at the World Junior Championships (.
_ Played in four Winter Olympic tournaments for Finland (1994- bronze; 1998- bronze; 2002; 2006 – silver)
_ Notched seven 20- goal seasons over his career, only Mike Modano (16) and Brian Bellows (10) have more in team history.

Lehtinen said he has pondered retirement since the summer, but wasn’t sure until recently.

“I have known how I am feeling, and I just wasn’t sure. It’s been my life,” he said of playing hockey. “But now I’ve got the feeling (it’s’ time to retire) and I realize it. I’m 100 percent sure of it.”

Lehtinen said he doesn’t know what he wants to do, but he wants to stay in hockey. His family is living in Coppell, and he could end up staying in the United States, but he lives in Finland during the summer and might go back there.

“Everything is still up in the air,” he said. “We’ll see.”

Here’s Mike Modano on Lehtinen:

“He was the guy who was on my line the most, so we really had a good run. He was just so consistent. His preparation for the game, his conditioning, his discipline during the game. He did everything as close to right as possible. He had a great career, that’s for sure.”

Here’s Ken Hitchcock on Lehtinen:

“In all of the time I coached him, I never once had to speak to him about being ready to play. He was a coach’s dream that way. He was gold. You could use him as an example to every other player on the team, because he always worked so hard and always was prepared.”

When told Lehtinen was plus-176 in his career, Hitchcock said:

“He was as good a two-way player as you are ever going to find. He always knew where the puck was and whether or not he could take a chance on it. He always knew where his linemates were and whether he should help out or not. You could put him on any line the whole time I had him, and he automatically made that line better. That’s a pretty strong statement about a player.”

Here’s Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk:

“When he came in to talk about it, he apologized for retiring. That is so Jere. I told him, if you’re at peace with this and you know this is what you want to do, then there’s no reason to apologize. I think it should be more a celebration of his career.”

“I am such of fan of his, from how he played the game, to how he prepared, to how hard he worked, to how he treated people. He is such a great player and a great person. As much as there have been special people in this organization, I really think it was a treat that we got to play with him or watch him play for 14 or 15 years. We were very lucky to have that.”

There are no current plans to honor Lehtinen immediately, but he will definitely be honored at some point _ and there will definitely be discussion about retiring his No. 26.